The participle is a verbal adjective. The present participle of any regular verb may be formed by adding the above endings to the stem.

A participle, as a verb, has tense, voice and mood. And, as an adjective, it has case, gender and number.

The function of the participle. The participle is used in sentences to describe the action of the subject. As a verb, it shares the tense of the main verb of the sentence, and as an adjective, it shares the case, gender and number of the subject of the sentence.

Note the following sentences and the way that the participles are translated:

legwn tauta o( a0nqrwpoj blepei ton kurion

"While saying these things, the man sees the Lord".

blepw ton legonta tauta

"I See the one who is saying these things".

ebleya ton legonta tauta

"I saw the one who was saying these things"

Note: When the article precedes the participle it is translated "the one who...", "he who...". When there is no article it is translated "while" or "as". I.e.,

e0bleya ton a0postolon legonta tauta

"I saw the apostle while he was saying these things".

e0bleya ton a0postolon ton legonta tauta

"I was the apostle who was saying these things".

Participles in Greek nt must grasp well these principles in order to correctly translate them.